Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Bottle (shared by marduk, thanks). Pours hazy yellow-brown with beige head. Aroma is sweet, fruity, malt, some floral notes. Flavor is sweet and bitter, black tea, fruits, some spiciness. Finish is harsh, old black tea with some fruitness. Overall: drinkable.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

500ml Bottle - Dark brown with some red tinges. Coffee, roasted malt and blackcurrant in the aroma. Earthy and fairly sweet taste with berries, cocoa and roasted malt standing out. A bit thin and nothing outstanding but much better than I was expecting.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

500ml Bottle - Hazy orange in colour. Sultanas, apricot and some sour notes in the aroma. Bready malt, caramel and dried fruit in the taste with a moderate sweetness. The taste is a lot better than I was expecting judging by the aroma and some of the previous reviews.

It's burning!

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

50cl bottle from Valmiermuiza Alus Tirgotava, Riga. Almost a gusher. Pours slightly hazy copper coloured to amber with an enormous, off-white head. Smells kind of funny (and almost funky), but there are also smoky chipotle notes. Somewhat yeasty aroma with notes of fruits, chipotle and hints of grains and herbs. If the other one didn’t get any chili in their bottles it may have all ended up in mine. At least it’s clearly not evenly distributed. Medium sweet and possibly some sour notes present, but hard to concentrate as it’s burning quite nice and intensely in my mouth. Possibly the most intense chili I’ve had in a beer (and I have had some over the years). but I like it. It might cover up faults, and it is quite one dimensional, but I like a nice chili burn. Probably not a beer I would have again just like that, but next to some Mexican food it would work well.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 3 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4

50cl bottle from Valmiermuiza Alus Tirgotava, Riga. Pours very dark, almost black, with a decent, beige head. Smells infected? Slightly malty aroma with sour berries, sour wooden and earthy notes, hints of roasted malt and strange yeast. Quite sour with notes of wood, sour red berries and hints of roasted malt. Seems to be infected, yes. Not much trace of the dark, malty and roasty, but looks nice. Would like to try one that isn’t infected. Still drinkable thou, but sour and somewhat strange. (Second one [of two] that I got from this brewery that was infected. ) --- Beer merged from original tick of Melnais Stārķis on 11 Jan 2015 at 19:09 - Score: 5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

50cl bottle from Riga. Pours dark brown with a reddish hue and a beige head. Malty aroma with quite earthy notes and slightly hoppy aroma with raisins, sour berries, hints of caramel, citrus and spices. Lightly sweet and surprisingly sour and earthy. Possibly infected, but it works out quite well in my opinion. Dry, mild roasty finish with notes of raisins and a somewhat earthy and sour finish with a certain bitterness too. Strange stuff, not much like an IPA and probably not quite ad intended, but quite tasty and certainly interesting. --- Beer merged from original tick of IBA on 13 Dec 2014 at 21:18 - Score: 6